New HIPAA Guidance on Ransomware Prevention and Recovery – Lexology

A U.S. government interagency report indicates that there has been a 300 percent increase in the daily ransomware attacks in 2016 as compared to 2015. Ransomware is malicious software that, when introduced into a system, gives a hacker access to the user’s system, and the ability to encrypt data and hold it hostage until payment is received. The data is decrypted only when a ransom, usually in the form of cryptocurrency (such as bitcoin) is paid. If and when it is decrypted, the original data is gone leaving only the data in encrypted form.